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From the Director's Desk January 2009 As Armenia Tree Project begins our 15th anniversary year, we can reflect with a sense of pride and satisfaction upon our many significant and enduring accomplishments, which have improved the landscape, environmental infrastructure, and standard of living for thousands of Armenians. In 2008, we continued to expand our capacity to plant hundreds of thousands of trees, educate youth and the public on the value a healthy and sustainable environment, and create opportunities for people to support their families with dignity. Our Community Tree Planting program, which was inaugurated in 1994, assisted in the greening of 60 new sites this year, with over 57,000 new trees grown in our nurseries. The overall survival rate of CTP trees is above 85 percent, and fruit trees planted over the past 15 years yielded a harvest of over 500,000 pounds of fruit in 2008. In 2004, we announced our plans to initiate broad scale reforestation and poverty reduction programming, and since that time, our newly established Rural and Mountainous Development program has planted over 1,500,000 mixed forest seedlings on 1,700 acres of deforested lands in northern Armenia. These trees are being grown by 400 families in backyard nurseries, many of whom double their annual income by selling trees to ATP, and at our 15 acre Mirak Family Reforestation nursery in Margahovit village. Hundreds of local residents receive seasonal income to plant and tend the trees. In 2008, ATP’s backyard nursery program was internationally recognized at the European Parliament in Brussels as a model for sustainable development, and was awarded the prestigious Energy Globe Award. Our collaboration with Conservation International and Yale University’s Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry this year resulted in the creation of Armenia’s first ever manual for sustainable forestry, which will be used to train professionals, students, and community members in global best practices of sustainable forest management. Our Environmental Education program this year trained over 500 public school teachers in the implementation of our “Plant an Idea, Plant a Tree” environmental curriculum, which is in the process of being approved by the National Institute of Education as a mandatory component for public education throughout Armenia. This, in addition to our efforts to directly educate thousands of youth, professionals, and university students will serve to create a new generation of environmental stewards who will care for and nurture Armenia’s future. Through the generosity of Mrs. Michael Ohanian, we were able to purchase and begin renovation of a three story house in Margahovit, which will serve as ATP’s northern headquarters and a new center for sustainable forestry and environmental education for the region. The details of our work in 2008, along with inspiring personal stories can be found in the body of this report. As we move forward, I can assure you that ATP will continue to work with the kind of profound dedication, passion and integrity that you can and should expect from an organization you trust with your hard earned investments. We pledge to continue to earn your support every day, and expand the hope, security, well being we have generated for Armenia and the global community. Thank you!! Jeff Masarjian
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